Date, time: 5 October 2023, 11:30-13:00 EEST

Venue: The Small Guild (address: Amatu iela 5, Riga, Latvia)

 

Description of the session:

The latest developments in wind energy technology, challenges, and opportunities of wind power implementation in the region.

 

Moderator:

Ms. Vineta Kleinberga, Researcher, Rīga Stradiņš University, Faculty of European Studies

 

Speakers:

 

Ms. Karen Marie Sandgren, Founder and Strategic Advisor, Nordic Energy Connection

Karen Marie is the Founder and Strategic Advisor in Nordic Energy Connection, a stakeholder engagement advisory firm focused on green energy transition. Within the framework of the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region, Ms. Sandgren is working together with the Nordic Council of Ministers on developing, managing, driving forward policy work and engaging cross regional initiatives focusing on bioeconomy and energy.

 

Mr. Mika Järvinen, D.Sc. (Tech.), Professor, Director of Aalto University H2 Innovation center

Mika research work at Energy Conversion research group at Aalto is currently related to Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage (CCUS) by different methods, mainly focusing on mineral carbonation-based methods. He also works in developing energy and materials utilization of different biomass and waste-based materials. These include thermal gasification of end-of life plastics, experiments in spraying and modeling of combustion and of black liquor in recovery boilers. In the future, Järvinen’s work will be related to continuing development of processes that help us to produce efficiently renewable hydrogen and different chemicals and energy from different sources, including wind power, solar power and waste-based materials.

 

Mr. Gunārs Valdmanis, Head of Department of Energy Market, Ministry of Climate and Energy of the Republic of Latvia

Gunārs is Head of Department of Energy Market at the Ministry of Climate and Energy of the Republic of Latvia since April 2023, and a researcher and lecturer in the Faculty of Power Engineering and Environmental Technologies of the Riga Technical University since 2020. Before Mr. Valdmanis has been Managing Director in Latvian Association of Power Engineers and Energy Constructors (2018-2023).